A “secret group” has sent a letter to the US Attorney’s office urging that NYRA be prosecuted:
The group, whose identity is not being disclosed, said in a letter sent by its lawyer July 21 that NYRA has continued to operate in questionable and suspect ways — despite being under the terms of a strict deferred prosecution arrangement for more than a year (Blood-Horse)
Not so very coincidentally, the unidentified group is interested in bidding on the NYRA franchise.
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I know the story of the investigation into Wild Desert’s whereabouts before the Queen’s Plate is a couple of days old, but I love this Bobby Frankel quote:
“I don’t know anything about it,” Frankel said. “They asked me to run the horse in my name in Canada. That’s what I did. That’s all I know” (Daily Racing Form)
Ok.
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This sounds familiar …
The new system, called the “FTBOA Chase to the Championship” rewards points for top-three finishes in for Breeders’ Cup races, graded stakes wins, races on Florida’s signature racing days, including the Florida Million, Florida Cup, Florida Stallion Stakes series, and Sunshine Millions, open-company stakes with purses of $40,000 and over, as well as group and listed races included in Part I of the of the International Cataloging Standards and International Statistics booklet…. The Florida-bred with the most points in each division on December 31 is deemed divisional champion (Thoroughbred Times).
Afleet Alex leads the three-year-old division and all categories overall in the new Florida standings. Just as he does in these standings.
Posted by JC in NY Racing Issues on 07/22/2005 @ 5:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
It’s opening day at Del Mar (Union-Tribune), and Saratoga is just a week away. NYRA officials must be fretting a little about attendance and buzz now that two crowd pleasers either won’t or may not put in a Spa appearance. Saratoga favorite Funny Cide is on the shelf until the fall (New York Times). “We’ll give him a little time off and then put him back in training and racing when the weather gets cool, probably around the end of September,” said assistant trainer Robin Smullen. Funny Cide came out of his last race, the Suburban, phyisically just fine, indicating that his sixth place finish there could perhaps be traced to a more existential problem. “He had no desire to get the job done,” said jockey Jerry Bailey after the race. Sackatoga managing partner Jack Knowlton said Funny Cide may try lower-level stakes next.
Afleet Alex is scheduled for the Travers, but he’ll run in the Haskell first, and trainer Tim Ritchey is making no promises about what Alex will do after:
“I would love to see him run in both races,” Ritchey said recently outside Barn 19 at Belmont Park, where Afleet Alex has been since winning the Belmont on June 11. “If he is healthy and doing well, then he will. The Haskell is the first race up. It’s very possible to do both races, but we will just have to wait and see how it goes between now and the Haskell, and then between the Haskell and the Travers” (Times-Union).
Wait and see? What kind of talk is that? I thought Alex was a superhorse, capable of leaping tall buildings and running more than one race a month.
The Times-Union also notes that Gary Stevens, Rafael Bejarano, and Ramon Dominguez are among the riders joining the Saratoga jockey colony this year.
Posted by JC in Track Notes on 07/20/2005 @ 6:00 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Said NTRA spokesman Eric Wing, explaining to Matt Hegarty that “computer malfunctions caused wrong results to be posted during the day on the site’s leader board, and that the NTRA took the board down in order to fix the problems.” As for allegations of past-posting — “That absolutely did not happen” (Daily Racing Form). So, all is well now and the Claiming Crown Contest was not compromised in any way. This guy isn’t buying that.
Posted by JC in Handicapping on 07/20/2005 @ 5:55 pm / Follow @railbird on Twitter
